"Ashikabi-sama," Tsukiumi said to me, after dinner. "What is this plan of yours?"

"It's not quite a full plan just yet," I admitted. "More of a handful of ideas. See... I have the ability to open portals to and from my own pocket reality. So getting out of sticky situations is going to be a lot easier."

"And?" Tsukiumi prompted. "What threat is so great that you feel the need to run away from it?"

"It's not to run away, it's to get away," I said. "The idea is, ultimately, fairly simple." I opened a tiny portal to the Warehouse, and pulled forth the Jinki. "This is one, of a collection of eight. And we know MBI has the other seven, right now." I tossed it up into the air, then snatched it on the way back down. "And I think we should have them."

"Ooooooh," Matsu said. "Heist, heist, heist!"

"But why does it need to be before Stage Two ends?" Musubi asked.

"Well, because I have a hunch that that idiot Minaka is going to give them out as prizes in Stage Three, and then getting all of them is going to be hard," I said. "Plus, the earlier on in his plan we stop the plan, the less damage he can do with it." I sighed. "Of course... the reason this isn't a plan, strictly speaking, is that there are still a lot of unknowns. Too many to come up with an actionable plan, yet."

"Ahem," Matsu said. "If you will please direct your attention to the busty redhead, you will find you're already sleeping with someone who's successfully stolen one of them already."

"Yeah, I've been meaning to ask you to look into this, but..." I paused. "Hrm. There's no way to say 'I've been distracted by getting Uzume to grow up and confess to what she needs to confess to already' that does not sound inappropriately sexual."

"So that is why you bathe with her so frequently," Akitsu said, dryly. We all turned around to stare at her, and she blushed. "Ah, I... was joking."

"I am so fucking proud of you, Angel," I said, wrapping her in a tight hug. "This kind of back-biting sass is exactly what I've always wanted from all of you, and I'm so happy you're finally comfortable enough with me to participate."

She just about melted into me, then and there, and as I turned back around to face the others, I kept Akitsu in my arms.

"So, there are a few things we need to know, before we start making plans," I said. "First, we need to figure out just where the hell the Jinki are now. Then we need to analyze their security... and then, finally, we can start planning an attack."

"What will we be able to do with the other Jinki?" Tsukiumi asked.

"I'm not completely sure, honestly," I said. "The one we have has a lot of corrupted data, and only one of its major functions works properly. I was able to figure out the broad strokes of most of what those other functions are, but... well, some functions are still unknown to me, and there's also the chance that the other Jinki are damaged in exactly the same way as this one, and we won't be able to do anything new with all of them. I just have a hunch that, with all of them in our hands, we'll be able to do something productive with them. And, well." I shrugged. "Beats sitting around, waiting for Minaka's plot to happen to us."

"They're all in Teito Tower, MBI's central headquarters," Matsu said.

"...You already found them?" I asked.

"I don't think Minaka is expecting Stage Two to last very long," Matsu said, shaking her head. "If he is planning to give the Jinki out as prizes, then it stands to reason he'd want them conveniently on-hand before the chaos really starts, and it gets harder to move things around."

"Well, hell yeah," I said. "What kind of security are they behind?"

"A lot of it," Matsu said. "More than I can hack through before the alarms sound anyway. And... well. Tsukiumi and Akitsu might make for a really strong combo, but MBI has Karasuba on-hand, and she's an absolute force of nature."

"Karasuba..." I hummed. "...You know, I can't help but feel like she should've come by to visit Musubi at some point. Aren't the two of you friends?"

"We are!" Musubi said, nodding. "I miss her... Ooooh, can we go visit her?"

"Absolutely not," Matsu said.

"Actually, that's not a terrible idea," I said.

"Yes it is," Matsu said. "Rose. Rose, listen to me. Karasuba is not a hot older woman who will say mean things and step on you. She's an insane murderer who hates literally all of humanity and wishes we were all dead, and isn't afraid to make that happen the hard way."

Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

"Look," I said. "With the portals, we only need to get one of us into the right position, before they open the door for the rest of us. And if Musubi has a good excuse to get inside the tower..."

"Yes," Matsu said. "While Karasuba is there, and paying attention to what's going on. I cannot stress this enough, she will literally murder all of us."

"Look, if you can come up with a better reason for why they should let Musubi back inside the tower, I'd love to hear it," I said. "Right now, we're brainstorming."

"Musubi did forget her MBI card in her room," Tsukiumi said.

"...Her what?" I asked.

"MBI card," Tsukiumi said, reaching into her cleavage and pulling out a black credit card with the letters MBI written on it in white. "A card given to all Sekirei to pay for their room and board, along with that of their Ashikabi. If only that contemptible landlady would actually accept them..."

"Oh, right, that," I said. "Uhhh. Hrm. Okay, gonna be honest, I do actually want to go get Musubi's card, now, just on its own. Don't know why, I don't have much need for money, but... well, it's still money."

"It's a start," Matsu said. "Still..." She frowned, biting her lower lip. "...I think we need something else, too. Something distracting, so they don't have their eyes on Musubi."

"Kazehana doing a striptease?" I suggested.

"A bigger distraction than even that," Matsu said.

"Damn," I muttered. "Well, listen. We've got time. As long as Kazehana and Homura stay here and virginal, we've got all the time in the world. We don't have to solve it all tonight. Let's hit the hay, and come back at it fresh tomorrow, yeah?"

Akitsu yawned daintily, and I took that as assent.

----------------------------------------

"So," Uzume said, the next morning, as we soaked in the onsen with each other and, oddly enough, Kazehana. "Tsukiumi came by to talk this morning."

"I'm aware," I said, my eyes already starting to unfocus.

"She was pretty intense about it, too," Uzume added.

"We're psychically-linked, you know," I said. "I've started meditating, to get in touch with my new senses, and uh... well, I got to see the whole thing through her eyes."

"So you know what she said," Uzume said.

----------------------------------------

"You!" Tsukiumi said, bursting into Uzume's room uninvited, and recoiling at the sight of Uzume in a state of undress, before rallying herself. "You truly do have no shame- you slatternly strumpet, playing with my Ashikabi's heart so!"

"What the fuck," Uzume said, wrapping a blanket around herself.

"She knows you have a confession to make, harlot!" Tsukiumi continued. "Go ahead and make it, already!"

And with that, Tsukiumi slammed the door shut, and turned around... to find Miya standing there, Spoon of Discipline in hand, very eager to correct Tsukiumi's manners regarding 'respecting the privacy of others' and 'using her indoor voice.'

----------------------------------------

"I'd have to be deaf to not know," I said. "As cool as it is that I saw it psychically while it was happening, there's also the fact that, you know. The walls are paper thin, and your room is right across the hall from mine. Hell, sometimes I can hear you buckle your ball gag before turning on your vibrator- I can absolutely hear Tsukiumi going ballistic."

Kazehana choked on her own spit and started coughing.

"Look, we're all adults, here," I said. "If Uzume wants to jerk off in the privacy of her own room, I'm not going to give her a hard time about it. Unless it would be really funny."

"Also," Uzume said. "What fucking confession? What the hell did you tell her that made her think I wanted to suck your dick?"

"Well, that would be another instance of 'normally I wouldn't do it unless it was very funny,'" I said. "I intentionally communicated a concept to others very poorly- the real concept was, 'Uzume has a problem that she's working up the courage to ask me for help with,' but I phrased it the other way because that was funnier, on account I am now apparently a harem protagonist."

"I see, I see," Uzume said, nodding. "Well. I guess now I've gotta come clean, don't I?"

"I mean, really, you don't," I said. "Not just because I really was not intending for Tsukiumi to go off on you like that, but also because I kinda... already know what you need my help with."

"...Oh," Uzume said, meekly.

"I know a lot of things."

"Really, now?" Kazehana asked. "What are my three measurements, then?"

"170cm, A Negative, Sun in Virgo," I listed off. All of which were factually true statistics about her, courtesy of Matsu and our psychic bond, but which were also, I think, a far funnier way to answer her question than what she intended. "Also, you had a really embarrassing crush on Minaka Hiroto, on account he's 190cm in total, and 20cm where it counts." Matsu had decided that, if she had to learn that Minaka listed his cock size in the MBI database, then I had to learn it too.

"Okay," Uzume said. "Not that I don't appreciate watching someone else getting their dirty laundry aired, but... Rose, what do you..."

"Your Ashikabi, Hidaka Chiho," I said. "Chronically and incurably ill. Lives in a hospital, because that's the only place equipped to really take care of her. Unfortunately, that hospital is owned by Hiyamakai Enterprises, whose CEO is Izumi Higa, a powerful and manipulative Ashikabi. He can't wing you by force, but since he has Chiho's life in his hands... well. That's the next best thing, in terms of making you do his dirty work. That about the size of it, Uzume?"

"...It is, yeah," Uzume said, nodding. "After you took out five of his Sekirei, he's been absolutely pissed at you. He... wants me to goad you out of position. To do something that'd get you and your Sekirei killed. Or, to... to do it myself, while you sleep."

"Oh, hey, it was Higa's Sekirei we fought that time," I said. "Anyhow, Uzume, let me ask you one more question."

"Out with it," Uzume said.

"Do you think there's any way you could visit Chiho today?" I asked.

"Uhhh..." Uzume cringed a little. "I would... really rather not, honestly. Higa is, um... Well, he knows where I am, and these past two weeks, he's ambushed me every time I showed up to the hospital to demand to know why I haven't killed you yet. If I show up today..."

"Let me handle that," I said. "I've got a plan."